Title 18, Title 18: Health

§ 5304. Limitation of powers The business of cemeteries shall not include among its corporate powers, either by express grant or as an incident thereto, the right to engage in any business enterprise or occupation such as is usually pursued by private individuals. Nevertheless, t…

§ 5305. Right to make rules and regulations The right of an agency engaged in the business of a cemetery, community mausoleum, or columbarium to make rules and regulations for the use, care, management, and protection thereof is hereby affirmed, and such agencies may by rule or r…

§ 5306. Perpetual care funds An agency engaged in the cemetery business shall have the right to acquire by gift, devise, or otherwise, land and property of every name and nature and to set aside surplus funds, to be held in trust as a perpetual care fund, the income thereof to be…

§ 5307. Rule against perpetuities A trust having one or more purposes provided under this chapter shall not be declared invalid by reason of indefiniteness as to the termination thereof, nor by the rule against perpetuities.

§ 5308. Custodian of funds; bond When such funds are not deposited with a bank chartered by the State or a national bank, the custodian or depositary thereof, unless otherwise directed by the terms of the trust or other provisions of this chapter, shall be the treasurer of the ag…

§ 5309. Investment of funds The principal sum of such funds shall be invested in bonds of the United States or the State of Vermont, or in the bonds or in notes issued in anticipation of taxes and authorized by vote of any town, village, or city in this State, or loaned upon firs…

§ 5310. Plats An agency engaged in any business of a cemetery, community mausoleum, or columbarium shall cause to be made a plat of its grounds, showing the part thereof improved or in use and that part held for future cemetery use. The plat of the improved part shall show the la…

§ 5311. Recording of plats It shall be the duty of the town clerk to receive and insert or bind in a book provided for that purpose all original plats or photostatic copies thereof, made in accordance with the provisions of this chapter, of such cemetery, community mausoleum, or …

§ 5312. Limitation of sales A lot, section, subdivision, crypt, niche, or any part of the cemetery, community mausoleum, or columbarium shall not be sold, contracted for sale, or offered for sale, until and unless a plat shall be made and recorded in accordance with the terms of …

§ 5313. Records; burial records open to public An agency engaged in the business of a cemetery, community mausoleum, or columbarium shall provide and maintain a suitable place of deposit for the records and files of such cemetery, community mausoleum, or columbarium, of such char…

§ 5314. Sale of property for interment purposes; disposition of receipts After recording the plat as provided in this chapter, and subject to the further provisions of this chapter relating to the sale of lots, crypts, and niches, the sale of lots, crypts, and niches may be made …

§ 5315. Sale of property for other than burial purposes; disposition of proceeds Either before or after the recording of the plat, as provided in this chapter, whenever it is determined that such lands acquired for cemetery purposes, except those acquired by condemnation proceedi…

§ 5316. Encumbrance of cemetery property prohibited A public mausoleum, crematorium, columbarium, the land or lot or right of burial shall not be mortgaged, pledged, or in any manner encumbered by the agency owning or controlling the same.

§ 5317. Tax exemptions Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, all cemetery lands, buildings, and property, and the proceeds thereof, as defined in this chapter, which have been platted and devoted to or held exclusively for cemetery purposes, including donations or gifts a…

§ 5318. Public use of cemetery for other purposes A public highway or railroad shall not be laid through such burial ground without the consent of the town, association, or the General Assembly, and no portion of such burial ground shall be taken for public use without special au…

§ 5319. Disposition of remains of dead (a)(1) The permanent disposition of human remains shall be by: (A) interment in the earth; (B) deposit in a chamber, vault, or tomb formed wholly or partly above the surface of the ground of a cemetery conducted and maintained pursuant to th…

§ 5320. Temporary vaults A town may construct and maintain, on land owned by such town, temporary receiving vaults for the temporary disposition of dead bodies, if approved by a majority of voters present and voting at an annual or special town meeting duly warned for that purpos…

§ 5321. Improvement of private burial grounds; duties of officers When the use and care of a private burial ground has been abandoned and such ground becomes unsightly from any cause, or when headstones or monuments have been displaced, the selectboard or board of cemetery commis…

§ 5322. Temporary access to cemeteries (a) Any person wishing to have a temporary right of entry over private land in order to enter a graveyard enclosure to which there is no public right-of-way may apply in writing to the selectboard or cemetery commissioners, as the case may b…

§ 5323. Natural burial grounds; exemptions (a) A natural burial ground shall not be subject to the following provisions of this chapter: (1) section 5310 of this title with regard to the method of platting so as to allow the use of any nonstandard method of locating human remains…

§ 5361. Appropriations and regulations by towns A town may vote sums of money necessary for purchasing, holding, improving, and keeping in repair suitable grounds and other conveniences for permanent disposition of the dead. The selectboard may make necessary regulations concerni…

§ 5362. Repair; expense; notice (a) When lots or walks in a public burial ground become unsightly with weeds or by an unchecked growth of grass or from any other cause, or when headstones or monuments have become displaced or out of repair, the selectboard or board of cemetery co…

§ 5363. Penalty A selectboard member, cemetery commissioner, or trustee who violates a provision of this chapter, or willfully neglects any of the duties imposed by this chapter, for which other penalties are not provided, shall be fined not more than $200.00. (Amended 1989, No. …

§ 5364. Fences; penalty When the selectboard or cemetery commissioners neglect to keep in repair the fence around a public burial ground, the town may be prosecuted for such neglect and fined not more than $400.00. The fine shall be expended in repairing the fences around such bu…

§ 5365. Damages for want of fence; liability When a person or estate is damaged by cattle, horses, sheep, or swine breaking into a public burial ground and injuring a grave, headstone, monument, shrubbery, or flowers, for want of a legal fence around such burial ground, such pers…

§ 5366. Not liable until notified A town shall not be charged for not keeping in repair the fence around a burial ground, or be liable for damage done, unless the selectboard, or cemetery commissioners, as the case may be, had notice in writing 20 days previous that the fence was…

§ 5367. Duties of selectboard When a town neglects to place one or more of its public burial grounds under the charge of a board of cemetery commissioners, the selectboard shall have power to sell and convey lots in such burial grounds. They shall apply the proceeds of such sales…

§ 5368. Exceptions Sections 5361-5367 of this title shall not apply to a burial ground which is subject to other control than that of the selectboard or the board of cemetery commissioners.

§ 5369. Removal When it is impracticable to preserve a burial ground in proper condition, and the removal of the remains of the dead in the burial ground is required, the selectboard, in their discretion, may cause such remains to be removed and interred in a more suitable public…

§ 5370. Notice; headstones When remains of the dead are removed, the selectboard, if necessary, shall cause suitable headstones or monuments to be erected to the memory of the deceased, or to designate the place of interment. Such remains shall not be so removed if there are know…

§ 5371. Town or city to furnish headstone In case of the burial of a person not having known estate, and not having a suitable marker or headstone erected at the person’s grave within three years after the date of such burial, the selectboard of the town or the aldermen of a city…

§ 5372. Appropriation for cemetery associations At a legal meeting of the voters thereof, when an article for such purpose has been duly inserted in the warning for such meeting, a town may appropriate such sums of money as it deems necessary for an incorporated cemetery associat…

§ 5373. Cemetery commissioners When a town votes to place its public burial grounds under the charge of cemetery commissioners, it shall elect separately a board of three or five cemetery commissioners, who shall have the care and management of such burial ground and exercise all…

§ 5374. Term The commissioner first chosen shall hold office five years, the next four years, the next three years, the next two years, and the last one year. When the term of office of each commissioner expires, a successor shall be chosen for five years. Vacancies in the board …

§ 5375. Laying out and improving grounds; burial without charge The board of cemetery commissioners may set apart such portion of the burial grounds placed under its charge as it deems proper, as a place for the burial of persons without charge therefor, under such regulations as…

§ 5376. Sale of lots; tax exemption The board of cemetery commissioners, by one of the commissioners appointed by it for that purpose, in the name of the town, by deed, may grant and convey lots in such burial grounds to be used for the permanent disposition of the dead and on wh…

§ 5377. Proceeds of sale; expenditure The proceeds of such sale of lots shall be paid into the town treasury and kept separate from other funds of the town and subject to the order of the board. Such proceeds, with the income thereof, shall be devoted to maintaining, improving, a…

§ 5378. Bylaws and regulations The board of cemetery commissioners may make necessary bylaws and regulations in respect to such burial grounds, and permanent disposition of the dead not inconsistent with law, and may alter the same. Such bylaws and regulations shall be recorded i…

§ 5379. Report of cemetery commissioners The board shall submit annually a written report to the town auditors as to the condition and needs of the burial grounds under its charge and of its doings, including a detailed statement of its receipts and expenditures and of the amount…

§ 5380. Auditors The town auditors shall audit such statement, file it in the office of the town clerk, and include the whole or a summary thereof in their annual report.

§ 5381. Transfer of care from commissioners to selectboard By vote, a town may take its burial grounds out of the charge of the board of cemetery commissioners and place the same under the charge of the selectboard. When a town so votes, the office of cemetery commissioners shall…

§ 5382. Town trust funds—Acceptance of property A town may take and hold in trust grants, gifts, or bequests of property and apply the same or the income thereof for the care, improvement, or embellishment of its burial grounds or a part thereof, or for the erection, preservation…

§ 5383. Acceptance of money in trust A town may vote to receive and hold money in trust, the income of which is to be used for the care and improvement of its burial grounds, or of private lots within such burial grounds or elsewhere.

§ 5384. Payment to treasurer; record; investment (a) Unless otherwise directed by the donor, all monies received by a town for cemetery purposes shall be paid to the town treasurer, who shall give a receipt for monies received, which shall be recorded in the office of the town cl…

§ 5385. Accounts; expenditures The town treasurer shall keep a separate account of each such trust fund unless the same is in charge of the trustees of public funds. The income therefrom shall be subject to the order of the selectboard or board of cemetery commissioners as the ca…

§ 5386. Report The town treasurer or trustees of public funds shall annually report the condition of such funds to the town.